Court Case

Smurfette woke up alone in an unfamiliar building. She could see the sun rising outside the window, and what she had just done came back to her all at once. She was alive! But… where was she?

The door creaked open, and a Smurf walked in, wearing a strange black robe. He closed the door behind himself.

"Smurfette," said the Smurf, "you messed up real bad, there. Why did you open the dam?"

The Smurf cackled. "You really think that's going to get you out of this? Wow, you're funny." He walked over and sat down next to her. "I'm here to defend you, okay? We know you broke the dam. I just need to prove it was an accident."

Smurfette was led outside to a wheelbarrow that had been set up as a stand. Jokey Smurf, her defendant, held her wrist tightly as he helped her into it. Hefty was giving her death glares from where he stood at the gap in the impromptu courtroom.

Brainy and Jokey stared at each other, and Smurfette giggled when she heard a member of the jury mutter "Now that’s what I call nepotism."

"You think that’s nepotism?" The Smurf next to them said. "If you look at who Papa has appointed as-"

"Quiet! Quiet in the court!" Papa yelled. The Smurfs settled down. "Mercuria 'Brainy' Sangbila," he continued in a calmer voice, "you may present your case."

Brainy grasped the ends of his robe delicately in his hands and curtsied. "Thank you," He said. "Your honor, ladies and gentlesmurfs of the jury, I smurf here in all of our best interests." He dropped the curtsy and clasped his hands together. "The Smurfette came here to destroy us, destroy our village, and we cannot," he unclasped his hands and gestured dramatically outward on the word ‘cannot’, "let her stay here any longer!"

Smurfette gasped. Brainy pointed into the air with one hand, and began pacing back and forth between the judge’s stand and where Smurfette and Jokey were.

"While she may look innocent at first glance, it is said: Smurf not too much to appearances and never smurf a smurf at face-value! Spare the smurf and spoil the smurf! The law is smurf, but it is the law! It is said that you must smurf the good smurf from the chaff-" Brainy stopped pacing and pointed to Smurfette- "-and the Smurfette is the chaff!"

"Hold it!" Jokey said. "You're smurfing without proof of smurf, Brainy! She's innocent until proven guilty!"

Brainy gasped and stepped back. "...I- I suppose you're right. Still! The Smurfette has been accused of having knowingly smurfed the flooding of our village, and I intend to prove that the accusation is correct."

Jokey smiled at Smurfette. "I'm here to defend the Smurfette. She may have flooded the village, but she couldn't have done it on purpose."

The crowd of Smurfs parted to let a Smurf through. Smurfette gulped- this was the Smurf who had seen her open the dam! Nosey went to stand in front of Papa Smurf's barrel.

"Fiyero 'Nosey' Dagonis, do you swear to tell the smurf, the whole smurf, and nothing but the smurf?"

Brainy's lips quirked into the beginnings of a smirk. "And is it true that you saw what caused the dam to break?"

"Fiyero..." Brainy's smirk grew. "Can you tell us what exactly you saw yesterday evening at the dam?"

"I was going to dinner when I saw Smurfette," Nosey explained. "She was heading away from the dining hall, and away from the outdoor dining area. Curious as to where she was going, I followed her. On the path to the dam, I stepped on a branch and broke it, nearly catching her attention. Luckily, I managed to hide in time.

She climbed the ladder to the platform on top of the dam. Her body blocked me from climbing up that way as well, so I had to find another way up. A tree was leaning over the dam, so I climbed that instead, inching over the branch and down onto the platform.

When I asked the Smurfette what she was doing, she said she was working on the dam. Of course, I wondered why she was working on the dam during dinnertime, and she told me Papa Smurf had given her the task. And that's when she opened the floodgate.

I fought her for control of the lever, attempting to close the floodgate, but she was much too strong. I pulled hard, but she pulled harder, and the lever broke, causing the Smurfette to tumble into the rushing floodwaters below.

I couldn't save her, so I lowered myself down on a rope and hammered the floodgate shut, hoping that I could stop it in time."

"He does tell quite a compelling story," said a member of the jury, pulling a pencil from their ponytail holder to take notes.

"That's quite a story!" He said. "Let me get this smurfed- the Smurfette overpowered you?"

"Nosey, you and your sisters are all large and strong. The Smurfette, meanwhile..." Jokey ran back over to Smurfette, and held up her arm.

"Look at these little noodle arms! There's no way she could be strong enough to wrestle control of the floodgates away from you!" Jokey laughed, shaking Smurfette's arm up and down. Smurfette pulled away from him.

"Objection!" Brainy yelled. "As Papa Smurf always says, you shouldn't smurf a book by its cover. The Smurfette's appearance doesn't mean she's weak." He turned to Papa Smurf. "Your honor, if I may ask another Smurf to help me demonstrate the fallacy in the defense's argument?"

"Absolutely not, this is a court case. You need to stop being so casual. Anyways... Cubret Sangbila, you don't intend on calling Fiyera 'Clumsy' Pelkapet to the stand as a witness, do you?"

Jokey grinned and crossed his arms. "Are you kidding me? Absolutely not, I'd have to be stupid to call the prosecutor's only friend to the stand." Smurfette noticed the way Jokey stressed the word "only," and she noticed how Brainy scowled at this.

"I have plenty of friends, but I digress. Fiyera?" There was a pause. "...Clumsy Smurf?"

Clumsy stumbled out of the crowd. While they neatly parted for him like they had for Nosey, he didn't step as neatly through them, stumbling and tripping and bumping into many of them. "Sorry, sorry, I'm sorry!" He said as he tried to make his way through. He tripped at the front of the crowd and landed sprawled on the ground. "Gosh, what's goin' on?"

Brainy helped Clumsy up. "...This may not work as well as I wanted," he said. Jokey laughed.

"Absolutely not, Cubret. My argument is still sound, it's C- uh, Fiyera's, clumsiness I have to smurf for." Brainy turned to the jury. "Behold, Fiyera 'Clumsy' Pelkapet. Over three apples tall, and skinny as a twig. If what Jokey says is correct, Fiyera should be incredibly weak." Brainy grinned again as he looked at Clumsy. "Clumsy, could you go to your house and grab your favorite rock for me?"

The crowd of Smurfs quickly scattered out of the way to make room for Clumsy as he left, and Smurfette stared, puzzled, at Brainy. What exactly was the bespectacled Smurf trying to get at, here? His argument against Jokey seemed like nonsense, but he looked entirely confident in it.

"Naw, 'e's onto somethin'. Ah've given Clumsy plenty av rocks, an' 'e 'as a preference dat might 'elp Brainy's point."

Clumsy came back with a wheelbarrow. In this wheelbarrow was a large gray rock, almost as large as a Smurf. "I got it, Brainy!"

Brainy put a hand on his chin in a thinking position. "Hmm. Not exactly what I smurfed, but an ingenious solution to keep you from injuring yourself before you got here. Now, Clumsy, could you pick up the rock?"

The members of the jury and the crowd muttered their disbelief as Clumsy Smurf, with some effort, picked up this Smurf-sized rock. It was large enough to block his face from view.

"Just for a moment." Brainy gestured out, first to Papa, and then to the jury. "Your honor, members of the jury, I present concrete proof that Smurfs can be much stronger than they smurf to be at first, and appearances can be deceiving."

Clumsy relaxed and dropped the rock- on his foot. "OW!" He pulled his foot out from under the rock, held it up to his chest, and promptly fell over due to becoming imbalanced. "Ow! That smarts..."

"Cubret 'Jokey' Sangbila, do you have any more questions to ask Fiyero 'Nosey' Dagonis?"

"Just one." Jokey said. "Nosey Smurf, is there a chance the Smurfette didn't know what she was doing?"

"Well, she wanted it open on purpose, but maybe she didn't smurf the damage it would cause?"

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Chapter 6: Court Case